August 31, 2017

Modern Greece, not what we're limited to

800-500 BC Colonization

Temple of Concordia at Agrigento, C5 BC

Ruins of the ancient Greek harbor at Marsallies, C4 BC

Alexander the Great's empire at his death, 323 BC

Alexandria on the Oxus (Ai-Khanoum, Afghanistan)

  • Theater which could seat 4-6,000
  • Palace in Greco-Persian fusion style
  • Gymnasium dedicated to Hermes and Herakles (in Greek)

Geography list

There will be a quiz. Learn where these places are.

Contemporary Archaeological Practice

  • Forumlation of a Research Program on the basis of an existing body of data or a prevailing interpretation thought to be in need of testing
  • Preliminary research in archives and records
  • Surface survey
    • Mapping
    • Geophysical prospection and remote sensing
    • "Field Walking"
    • Settlement pattern survey
  • Recovery of data by appropriate means
    • Digging is always a LAST RESORT
  • Reporting and publication

Methods of dating/chronology

  • Correlation and cross-dating ("Synchronism")
    • Comparison of finds in one context of discovery having a continuous record, particularly written (e.g. Egypt of Mesopotamia), or with a precise date, with those in another context of discovery (e.g. Greece)
    • "Heirloom" problem
  • Scientific dating
    • Radiometric dating: most famously carbon-14 (or "radiocarbon"); half-life 5730 +/- 40 years
    • Incremental dating: e.g. tree-rings (dendrochronology), ice cores, lake-bed sediment
    • Problems: calibration; regional gaps in the record
  • Usually, dating methods are used in combination

Dendrochronology

Typology & Seriation: Organization by form, function, or material category